Fuzing systems generally use a power source coupled with a timing system to trigger a firing circuit. It is often a requirement for such fuzing systems to have an extended shelf life. It is also often a requirement for such fuzing systems to be operable over a wide temperature range.
Solid-state lithium (SSLi) batteries have a long shelf life of twenty years or more. This longevity is partly due to chemical stability and partly due to a self-discharge rate of less than 2% of capacity per year per cm2. N. J. Dudney et al., Rechargeable Thin-Film Batteries with LiMn2O4 and LiCoO2 Cathodes, 197th meeting of the Electrochemical Society, 4 (Spring 2000). Unfortunately, use of SSLi batteries in conventional fuzing systems has been generally rejected because SSLi batteries have poor low or cold temperature performance. For example, an SSLi battery having a current capacity of 100μ amperes at a temperature of +20° C. may have a current capacity of only 20μ amperes at a temperature of −50° C. The limited ability of an SSLi battery to deliver current at cold temperatures is due to a dramatic nonlinear increase of its internal resistance as a function of lowered temperatures.
It would thus be desirable to overcome the shortcomings of conventional fuzing systems.